NURS FPX 6412 Assessment 3 Manuscript for Publication
Manuscript for Publication
A manuscript for publication related to the eMAR (Electronic Medication Administration Record) system’s initiative and outcomes will be proposed. Along with this, recommendations for improvement of the eMAR system to increase the health benefits for the patients and to facilitate the healthcare providers.
Use of eMAR for Interprofessional Care Team/ Stakeholders
The eMAR system has been widely used due to its benefits to healthcare providers and stakeholders. These stakeholders include the patients, the healthcare team, the hospital leaders and shareholders, and the healthcare system. The eMAR system aims to provide its users with access to healthcare services with minimum errors and maximum safety through its in-built updates system that detects minute errors.
NURS FPX 6412 Assessment 3 Manuscript for Publication
The eMAR system provides the interprofessional team access to healthcare services through a digital system without needing to meet and discuss patients physically. It provides the interprofessional team with access to patient information to provide effective diagnosis, treatment, management, and preventive strategies that enhance the healthcare outcomes for the patient. Along with this, the eMAR system enhances the collaboration and communication of healthcare providers through digital means and offers them an open-line communication process Snyder et al., 2019).
This allows access to collaboration whenever necessary to devise and modify healthcare plans to effectively provide healthcare services to the patient. As the eMAR system is linked to the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, the healthcare provider can offer the patient access to remote healthcare services where the patient can collaborate and communicate with the healthcare providers remotely. This aims to increase the provision of healthcare services to the patient while minimizing the cost of therapy (Vos et al., 2020).
The eMAR system has helped healthcare providers reduce excessive and unnecessary stress that impacts the quality and safety of healthcare services offered to patients. It has increased the standard of safety of healthcare services by counter-checking the prescribed medication with those dispensed and to be administered. The system checks the frequency, dosage, and route of administration to ensure that the patient is not at risk due to errors by healthcare providers. This makes healthcare providers feel at ease as the system detects errors and prevents patient health harm (Moore et al., 2020).
The eMAR system has an inbuilt alarm system that alerts healthcare providers about drug-drug interactions that may cause adverse events due to the wrong medication dosage, frequency, and route of the drug being administered. This helps to prevent medication errors and healthcare disparities following it. As a result, it helps to improve the quality and safety of care offered to the patients, decreasing the workload of the healthcare providers (Carayon et al., 2021).
The eMAR system is an aid used by healthcare providers to keep track of the patient’s healthcare and provides monitoring services through the EHR system. This allows healthcare providers to know the efficacy of the therapy for the patients. Also, suppose the patient’s health is not improving or the therapy is ineffective. In that case, the healthcare providers can digitally collaborate and communicate to devise a new healthcare plan for the patient. This helps reduce the burden on the interdisciplinary team as they can collaborate without worrying about taking time out of their busy schedule to meet and collaborate. This saves time and increases the efficacy of the healthcare system as instant changes to the healthcare plan can happen through the digitalized system.
Another benefit this system has provided the interdisciplinary team members is the increase in the care coordination process. The nurses and other interdisciplinary team members can readily collaborate and communicate with the patients to provide care coordination and increase the benefits of the healthcare services. The care coordination process has increased the patient’s compliance to the healthcare therapies as the healthcare providers have adequately educated the patients about the benefits and drawbacks of non-compliance to medication therapy. As the eMAR system effectively reduced medication errors, the readmission rates due to adverse events decreased, and as a result, the healthcare providers had sufficient time to educate the patients. Thus, care coordination improved (Fei et al., 2019).
Enhanced Information Systems will Promote Safe Practice and Quality Outcomes
The eMAR system reduced the burden on healthcare providers, preventing them from providing care coordination to the patient. The eMAR system reduced medication errors that contributed to adverse events, which led to long treatment periods and prevented healthcare providers from collaborating and communicating with patients. As a result, the patients were unclear about their healthcare plans and often followed their prescription incorrectly or did not follow it. The negligence contributed to increased healthcare disparities as the patients could not benefit from their healthcare plans due to a lack of knowledge. The introduction of the eMAR system increased the time for healthcare providers to communicate and collaborate with the patient to make patient-centered care plans, leading to quality and safe care as errors were detected beforehand (Bacon & Hoffman, 2020).
The eMAR system is linked to the EHR system, which is directly linked to all other electronic systems for efficient healthcare services. This access gave the healthcare providers early alert and warning about the adverse events linked to poor administration, dispensing, and prescription of drugs. The healthcare providers could instantly send messages or alerts to the nurses regarding the chances of therapies and plan to prevent administering wrong medications (Karnehed et al., 2022). Also, as the eMAR led to the digitalization of the patient information and documentation process, the nurses had more time to spend with the patients. This allowed the patient to participate in their healthcare plans and regimes actively, increasing their compliance with medication therapies. As the healthcare providers were able to give time to the patients, the queries and ambiguities regarding the healthcare plans were addressed, and the patients felt more relieved about their healthcare plans (Hunt & Chakraborty, 2021). The eMAR system was able to enhance the quality outcomes by
- Reducing the burden on healthcare providers,
- Alerting about the possible adverse events and near-miss events,
- Making the documentation process easier,
- Providing the patient with reminders to take medications through the EHR system,
- Increase the patient-healthcare provider’s collaboration and communication,
- Increasing the instant access to patient information following the digitalization of the healthcare process,
- Providing telemonitoring services to the patients,
- And by reducing communication gaps between healthcare providers so that they can provide patient-centered care.
NURS FPX 6412 Assessment 3 Manuscript for Publication
eMAR Supports the Strategic Plan of the Organization
The strategic plan of the healthcare organization is to provide healthcare services that are free of errors, increase the safety of the care process, reduce the increase collaboration and communication of healthcare providers and patients, reduce readmission rates, reduce the cost of therapy, increase health outcomes, and increase the patient satisfaction rate. The e-MAR system initiative helped support the strategic plan by addressing the primary factors contributing to the drawback in the healthcare process (Mulac et al., 2021).
The eMAR system bridged the communication gaps between healthcare providers and patients, contributing to patient satisfaction. The patients were kept in the loop of the healthcare plans to be devised following the patients’ consent. As the healthcare providers were not in a hurry, they communicated with the patients and used the 5As strategy to ensure the patient understood the healthcare plan. This helped the patients know their healthcare plan and the healthcare providers to know if they had explicit knowledge about their healthcare regime. Thus improving the standard of safety and quality care (Fei et al., 2019).
The eMAR system improved the systemic workflow of the healthcare system as the digitalization of medical records replaced the written documentation process. This helped to ease the burden on healthcare providers as they no longer had to indulge and keep the paperwork safe. This meant that if there was a natural disaster and all of the paper documentation was destroyed, the healthcare system would have all the patient information in the digital system. The information would be backed up, and the patient’s information would be available to each healthcare provider. This way, the interdisciplinary team members will be well-informed and updated about the patient’s healthcare. Any changes to the healthcare plan will be made effortlessly through digital means, and the patient will be kept in the loop. This would allow the healthcare providers to collaborate with the patients, would help to reduce healthcare disparities, increase positive health outcomes, and achieve the organization’s strategic plan (Albagmi et al., 2021).
Recommendations to Improve the Current eMAR System
The eMAR system effectively reduces medication errors and adverse events, but there is always room for improvement to enhance technological aid to yield more benefits for the stakeholders. As the eMAR system is a digital system, it operates on electricity; however, if there is a power blackout, the healthcare providers cannot access the patient information, nor can they provide remote healthcare services. To prevent possible healthcare disparities due to delays in treatment caused by power blackouts, the healthcare system can initiate the implementation of a backup power source through generators, solar panels, or an Uninterrupted Power Supply (Guven et al., 2021). This would help ensure that the in-patients and outpatients (remote) are provided access to healthcare services without delay (Bean et al., 2020).
The eMAR system is an electronic system; thus, there is a need to have a backup system where all the patient’s information is kept safe and updated. The backup will ensure the data is not lost if hacking or data theft or care system. This means that the patient’s information has been lost or deleted. The documentation process is digitalized, and the healthcare system will have no way to recover the information. It would need to restart its data entry process from the beginning, which would take months until the patient information has been restored. This lengthy process would hamper safe, and quality care as the healthcare providers will be engrossed and stressed about patient information and documentation procedure. To prevent this from happening, backup data through a cloud system or Google Drive would ensure a safer alternative if the data were to be hacked or deleted (Aguirre et al., 2019).
Healthcare providers should be encouraged to enroll in Nursing Informatics courses to increase their knowledge and skills regarding technological aids. This will help to bridge the gaps in the practice and use of the digital healthcare system and will improve the efficacy of the healthcare providers to use the electronic healthcare system without delaying the treatment for the patient (Booth et al., 2021).
Summary
The eMAR system is an initiative to help increase the quality and safety of patient care without harming their health. The eMAR system is linked to the EHR system, which provides patients with remote healthcare services. It prevents and reduces the rate of medication errors and improves the quality of care and safety offered to the patient. As the eMAR system enables the healthcare organization to achieve its strategic goals, healthcare providers must learn the effective use of technological aid.
NURS FPX 6412 Assessment 3 Manuscript for Publication
References
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Aguirre, R. R., Suarez, O., Fuentes, M., & Sanchez-Gonzalez, M. A. (2019). Electronic health record implementation: A review of resources and tools. Cureus, 11(9), e5649. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5649
Bacon, O., & Hoffman, L. (2020). System-level patient safety practices that aim to reduce medication errors associated with infusion pumps: An evidence review. Journal of Patient Safety, 16(3S Suppl 1), S42–S47. https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000722
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Carayon, P., Du, S., Brown, R., Cartmill, R., Johnson, M., & Wetterneck, T. B. (2017). EHR-related medication errors in two ICUs. Journal of Healthcare Risk Management: The American Society For Healthcare Risk Management, 36(3), 6–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhrm.21259
Fei, L., Robinson, J., & Macneil, A. (2019). Case Study: Using electronic medication administration records enhances medication safety and improves efficiency in long-term care facilities. Nursing Leadership (Toronto, Ont.), 32(2), 102–113. https://doi.org/10.12927/cjnl.2019.25958
Guven, D., Kayalica, M. O., & Kayakutlu, G. (2021). Critical power demand scheduling for hospitals using repurposed EV batteries. Technology and Economics of Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy, 6(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40866-021-00120-z
Hunt, S., & Chakraborty, J. (2021). Dose verification errors in hospitals: A literature review of the eMAR-based system’s nurses use. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 36(2), 182–187. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000491
Karnehed, S., Erlandsson, L. K., & Norell Pejner, M. (2022). Nurses’ perspectives on an electronic medication administration record in home health care: Qualitative interview study. JMIR Nursing, 5(1), e35363. https://doi.org/10.2196/35363
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